Candidates, Competition, and the Partisan Press

• Date: 01 September 2014
• Author: Jamie L. Carson,M. V. Hood
• Published date: 01 September 2014
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X13504290
• Subject Matter: Articles

American Politics Research

2014, Vol. 42(5) 760 –783

© The Author(s) 2013

Reprints and permissions:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/1532673X13504290

apr.sagepub.com

Article

Candidates, Competition,

and the Partisan Press:

Congressional Elections

in the Early

Antebellum Era

Jamie L. Carson1 and M. V. Hood III1

Abstract

Congressional elections have occurred every 2 years since the nation’s

founding, yet we know surprisingly little about these electoral contests

outside of the modern era. This is unfortunate as our understanding of

how Congress performs and has evolved over time is directly linked to

how its elected representatives reach and maintain office. In an effort

to better understand early U.S. House elections, we revisit the era of

the “partisan press” where newspapers were the main source of news

for American voters and were typically operated by one of the two

major parties. Using a data set linking the geographic location of partisan

newspapers with electoral data during the early 19th century, we examine

district-specific factors impacting the competitiveness of House races.

We uncover previously unidentified evidence of candidate-specific effects

during this historical era along with confirmation of media influence in the

context of early American elections.

Keywords

congressional elections, partisan press, Antebellum Era

1The University of Georgia, Athens, USA

Corresponding Author:

M. V. Hood III, Department of Political Science, The University of Georgia, 104 Baldwin Hall,

Athens, GA 30602-1615, USA.

Email: th@uga.edu

504290APR42510.1177/1532673X13504290American Politics ResearchCarson and Hood

research-article2013

Carson and Hood 761

In the last two decades, an increasing number of political scientists have

begun looking to the past in an effort to learn more about aspects of congres-

sional history and gain leverage on important research questions. What makes

this particular trend so noteworthy is that the bulk of research on Congress to

date has focused almost exclusively on the contemporary era. This is espe-

cially true in the context of research examining congressional elections.

Although we know a great deal about congressional elections that have

occurred since the end of World War II, less attention has been given to elec-

tions prior to the mid-1900s where elections data are not readily available. As

a result, much of our knowledge about earlier elections is based almost

entirely on anecdotal or historical accounts from these eras. An unfortunate

consequence of this emphasis is that we often assume that congressional elec-

tions from the past are far different from those in the modern era simply

because the historical context is so dissimilar to what we know today.

As is often the case, new research has begun to challenge many of our

existing beliefs about earlier congressional elections, especially in terms of

how well modern theories hold up across time. Engstrom and Kernell (2005),

for instance, find that ballot structure and redistricting efforts played an

important role in influencing electoral outcomes in House races over time. In

their analysis of elections in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Carson

and Roberts (2013) find that experienced candidates exhibit behavior that is

remarkably similar to candidates in the contemporary era. They also find that

electoral reforms such as the Australian ballot and the direct primary served

to alter the incentive structure for members of Congress and reduced levels of

electoral competition over time. Finally, their results offer evidence of an

incumbency effect as early as the late 19th century, which casts doubt on

contemporary explanations for the emergence and growth of the incumbency

advantage over time.1

Recent years have witnessed a greater interest in congressional elections

outside of the modern era as the preceding examples suggest. Yet, with few

exceptions, almost nothing is known about congressional elections during the

early antebellum era. This is unfortunate as our understanding of how the

institution of Congress performs and has evolved over time is explicitly

linked to how its elected representatives attain and hold office. We believe

that a closer examination of elections during this era could offer us novel

insights about how the newly developed institution chose to organize itself

and create public policies for the nation. In many respects, this is a truly

unique political era as political parties during the first two decades of 19th

century were relatively weak compared with the party organizations that

would emerge in the coming years. Indeed, it was the newspapers of this era

that played an active role in keeping the early parties afloat, which should